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NOVEMBER 18, 2013

White Rose Exhibition coming to MCPL Wausau

In January, The Marathon County Public Library Wausau Headquarters will host a traveling historical exhibit about the White Rose, a student resistance group in Germany who rebelled against the Nazis.

Through photos and text, the exhibit tells the story of how the students and one of their professors quietly produced a series of leaflets that urged others in Germany to rise up against the tyranny of the regime. The White Rose group risked certain arrest – and possible death – to produce the anti-Nazi propaganda that was covertly distributed throughout Munich, Hamburg and beyond. In 1943, several members of the group – including siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, who helped form the group – were caught. After a quick trial, six members of the group and the professor who helped them were executed. Other students sympathetic to the White Rose also were executed or sent to concentration camps.

The library will hold an opening reception for the exhibit on Saturday, Jan. 4, and we also will show films about the White Rose, including a documentary about Wisconsin’s own Mildred Fish-Harnack, the only American woman executed by direct order of Adolph Hitler for her role in the Nazi resistance. The library will host a panel discussion about the legacy of White Rose in German culture, and teachers and other educators should contact MCPL Wausau about arranging student tours.

This exhibit, presented by White Rose Foundation e . V. of Munich, Germany, and the related events are a new venture in MCPL’s spectrum of programming, and one we hope sheds light on an important slice of WWII history. Funding for this program was provided by the Friends of the Marathon County Public Library.